On Kazuo Hara and Japanese Documentary Film

Kazuo Hara and Japanese Film Studies
Videoed symposium (held on May 3, 2009) featuring three of the top film studies scholars from around the US discussing Kazuo Haras body of work (including The Emperors Naked Army Marches On (1987) and Extreme Private Eros: Love Song 1974) and the future of Japanese film studies at universities worldwide, followed by comments by Kazuo Hara. This event was a part of the UC Berkeley Center for Japanese Studies 50th Anniversary program of events. Co-sponsored by: Center for Japanese Studies and Pacific Film Archive. With Markus Nornes, Aaron Gerow, Akira Mizuta Lippit, and Miryam Sas

Western documentary film theory focuses on the relationship of signified and signifier raked by the subjectivities of producer and spectators. Because these two groups approach the referent only through the signification system, the theory closes off discussion of the profilmic world. ... Japanese theoretical and popular discourses do not suffer from this linguistic confusion between subject and object. In post-1960 film theory and filmmaking, it is precisely the relationship between subject and referent that produces the sign. Where the American filmmaker creates a sign from a referent in the world, the Japanese filmmaker’s intimate interaction with the referent leaves a signifying trace we call a documentary film. It is a subtle but decisive difference one would have difficulty articulating with the critical tools of contemporary documentary theory outside of Japan. [Abé Mark Nornes, Forest of Pressure: Ogawa Shinsuke and Postwar Japanese Documentary. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2007, cited by Charles Fairbanks, 2003, p. 11]

Film Studies For Free was so inspired by its discovery of the above video (with its wonderful sequences from Haras films) that it concocted a short but high quality, accompanying list of links to some wonderful online resources about the Japanese documentarists work, as well as related issues of Japanese cinema.

Please note, especially, the excellent monograph on Hara by Jeffrey and Kenneth Ruoff (one of the wonderful books by the now sadly defunct publishers Flicks Books), which has been added to FSFFs permanent listing of openly accessible ebooks.

That books co-author Jeffrey Ruoff has an incredibly generous collection of some of his other film studies work online here. And Aaron Gerow, one of the speakers in the above symposium has an amazing collection of his own online work, much of it on Japanese cinema here.

• The Kazuo Hara production diary (archived version) (Link via Yusef Sayed ‏[@InsaneHorizon]) 

• Abé Mark Nornes, X-Treme Private Documentary: Michael Moore and Kazuo Hara, Film (University of Michigan), 2007
• Jeffrey Ruoff and Kenneth Ruoff, The Memory of War: Hara Kazuos "The Emperors Naked Army Marches On"(London: Flicks Books, 1998)
• Kenneth Ruoff, Filming at the Margins: The Documentaries of Hara Kazuo, Iris: A Journal of Theory on Image and Sound no. 16 (Spring 1993), 115-126
• Kenneth Ruoff, "Japans Outlaw Filmmaker: An Interview with Hara Kazuo," with Kenneth Ruoff, Iris: A Journal of Theory on Image and Sound, no. 16 (Spring 1993), 103-113

Also see:

• Film of the Month entry on Kazuo Haras The Emperors Naked Army Marches On (thanks to Girish Shambu)
• Dan Edwards, Breaking the doco mould, Realtime 63, 2004
  
• Catherine Grant, On Japanese Cinema, Film Studies For Free, July 27, 2010
• Tetsuaki Matsue, Extremes of Independence, Vertigo, 3.4, 2007
• Midnight Eyes Kazuo Hara resources

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Reassessing Anime Japanese cinema and animation

Anime is a visual enigma. Its otherworldly allure and burgeoning popularity across the globe highlights its unique ability to be more than just another type of animation. Originally a novelty export from post-war Japan, anime has now become a subtle yet important part of Western popular culture. Furthermore, it remains a key area of audience and fan research that crosses all generations – children, teenagers, and adults. From Osamu Tezuka to Hayao Miyazaki, Akira (Katsuhiro Ôtomo, 1988) to Ghost in the Shell (Mamoru Oshii, 1995), anime’s extraordinary characters and oneiric content still enable it to be regarded as one of the most awe-inspiring visual spectacles going into and during the twenty-first century.
    Keenly aware of anime’s rich history, cultural and global context, and increasing presence and influence on Western art, literature and film, the theme of this issue of Cinephile is ‘Reassessing Anime.’ The six articles included herein aim to address and tackle some of the overlooked aspects of anime. Such a reassessment by each author hopes to encourage future academic scholarship into the evolution and value of anime and, moreover, its impact not only on film but also on TV, comic books, video games, music videos, and corporate marketing strategies. [Jonathan A. Cannon, Editors Note, Cinephile, Reassessing Anime, 7.1, 2011. FSFFs hyperlinks]

Film Studies For Free is delighted to announce that the Spring 2011 issue of Cinephile, the excellent film journal edited out of the University of British Columbia, Canada, has just been made available for download for free as a single PDF file.

As signalled above, this issue is dedicated to "Reassessing Anime" and it features great, original articles by internationally renowned animation scholars Paul Wells and Philip Brophy, as well as illustrations by Vancouver-based artist Chloe Chan.

The issues table of contents is given below, and below that, FSFF has also provided a handy, clickable index of its own popular posts on anime and Japanese cinema.

The latest issue of Cinephile, available for purchase now, is on Contemporary Realism. It features original articles by Ivone Margulies and Richard Rushton. There is also a call for papers on "The Voice Over".

• Playing the Kon Trick: Between Dates, Dimensions and Daring in the films of Satoshi Kon by Paul Wells
• The Sound of an Android’s Soul: Music, Muzak and MIDI in Time of Eve by Philip Brophy
• Beyond Maids and Meganekko: Examining the Moe Phenomenon by Michael R. Bowman
• Reviewing the ‘Japaneseness’ of Japanese Animation: Genre Theory and Fan Spectatorship by Jane Leong
• The Higurashi Code: Algorithm and Adaptation in the Otaku Industry and Beyond by John Wheeler
• Mamoru Oshii’s Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence: Thinking Before the Act by Frédéric Clément 

Film Studies For Free on Anime and Japanese Cinema

• On Japanese Cinema July 27, 2010
• Dreaming Movies: RIP Satoshi Kon (1963-2010) August 25, 2010
• Imaginary and Fantastic: Hayao Miyazaki Studies November 25, 2009
• Animation Studies: Three Fabulous Online Resources November 14, 2011
• Mickey Mouse and Animation Links November 18, 2008 
• War, Conflict and Commemoration in the Age of Digital Reproduction December 6, 2010

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